What up CHUaholics!?! Shawn B., the One Year Later Investigator, back with another One Year Later round up, where we take a look at some of the comics that Anthony, Mel and Poyo specced on one year ago. Their specs turn out to be quick flips, slow burns, straight up misses, straight up winners and on and on. Sometimes they spec with their hearts out of their passion for comics. Sometimes they spec based on data. And sometimes they spec based off the word on the street. Either way, all their specs appeal to a few or many collectors whether it is due to them having similar taste in writing or art, or just an opportunity for a collector to flip a book and make money to “support their habit”. So, this is our weekly chance to look back at how some of our buys from a year ago are doing today.

Tough week for the guys. Not many good books were released so must of their specs were based on personal opinion or taste.

Winners – No winners this week!!

Near MissesDeadpool Too Soon #1 – Poyo PickOriginal Value: $5 Current Value: $5 Still available everywhere.
First appearance of Squirrelpool!!!! OMG what a revelation! Where did they come up with such an original idea? Seriously who knows where this character goes down the road so it’s in Near Misses for me. Who is next Grootpool, Trapsterpool, Stilt-Manpool, Gwenpool (oh, wait…), Bird-Brainpool, Angar The Screamerpool?!?!

Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat #11 Variant Champions Cover – Mel PickOriginal Value: $4 Current Value: $4
Not a ton of activity on this one. Mel was going for the long play spec here. If Agents of Shield ran long enough, we may see Ms. Marvel meet up with Ghost Rider, and this would be their first cover appearance together.

Amazing Spider-Man #20 – Poyo PickOriginal Value: $4 Current Value: $4 Still available at on-line retailers.
Poyo took a chance on this one. The preview made it seem like there was a death. I don’t even know if there was or not. I read every issue description for every week’s new releases and there is almost always alluding to some major event happening. Anyone else think that almost all of the Alex Ross regular covers for this series are pretty incredible?!

Lord of Gore #1 – Anthony PickOriginal Value: $4 Current Value: $4 Still available at some on-line retailers.
Tony loves his horror. Pretty sure this was a good read only spec but I needed to add more specs for this light week.

The failure of Mockingbird is a tragedy. That was such a great book! Can’t believe they didn’t even let it continue to #12. It was on par with Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye.
Lord of Gore would probably have done better if it came out on time. I can’t believe it’s already been a year since #1. I donated to the Kickstarter on that one, and am also a fan of horror, so I am biased, but spec or not, it’s a cool book to check out.
And I’d never seen that Patsy Walker Champions Variant by Nauck. I need that one now…

That’s the thing. A lot of my picks were personal favorites. For example I love Evil Dead, but Bruce Campbell will not sign Dynamite comics. So I liked these for the signing potential. Many specs do fizzle out. In fact, we say we are picking the ones we feel have the best chance. But some weeks it’s the best out of books that have no spec potential.